youth

In response to claims that Harlem is overburdened by drug-addiction rates and overdoses, a methadone clinic is being built on 145th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in West Harlem. However, community members argue that this clinic is not needed in the area.

Amid concerns over the coronavirus, New York City government officials canceled the Summer Youth Employment Program earlier last month, which engages thousands of youths in paid pre-professional work. But city advocates, including Manhattan Community Board 9—a local advisory board representing Morningside Heights and surrounding areas—expressed concerns and suggested that the program continue remotely to provide economic benefits for underprivileged youth.

“Wash your gee,” Rosario tells Nico, one of his students, as Nico prepares to leave the dojo. “Don’t come over here smelling like buttcheeks.”

In response to New York State’s $6 billion budget shortfall, Community Board 9 passed a motion opposing projected spending cuts to Medicaid and insufficient increases to education, which were outlined in the New York state midyear financial report.

The Manhattanville Community Center temporarily closed several rooms where its after-school programs were hosted due to unsafe lead levels in areas of the building, a move that incited community concern over disrupted services for children and health of visitors, following an inspection from the New York City Housing Authority earlier this month.

City officials declined to give money to Community Board 9 based on the group’s preliminary budget recommendations for housing and park renovations for the next fiscal year. However, the mayor’s office agreed to allocate money for youth education, which was a financial priority for CB9, a local advisory board representing Morningside Heights and surrounding areas.

“All their life in this world and all their adventures had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” - C.S. Lewis

The storefront in front of Old Broadway between 125th and 126th streets was supposed to be the answer for supporting a community suffering from gun violence, youth incarceration, and little afterschool programming. In 2013, longtime anti-violence activists Derrick Haynes and Taylonn Murphy received a grant for a project perfectly suited to be funded under Columbia’s financial commitment to the West Harlem community.

Tess’s death is a tragedy, one that has shaken our University in ways we are only beginning to understand. With heavy hearts, we extend our deepest condolences to Tess’s family and friends. Words fail to capture the spectrum of emotion felt across campus, and this is a loss we will all continue to endure for years to come.

United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth Jayathma Wickramanayake spoke about the power of young communities to inspire change through connectivity in what she described as a rapidly changing and chaotic political climate on Tuesday as part of the Columbia University World Leaders Forum.